The past 30 years has seen more "hot" (orange), "very hot" (red) and "extremely hot" (brown) summers, compared to a base period defined in this study from 1951 to 1980 (Source: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio)

Hotter summers have become the norm from 1980 to present compared to 1951 to 1980 (the base period)

James Hansen, study leader from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), as well as GISS researchers Makiko Sato and Reto Ruedy, have concluded that summer heat waves (mainly in the U.S. Midwest) have become the norm over the last 30 years compared to a base period 30 years before 1980 -- and it's because of global warming.

Their study works like this: the team collected mean summer temperatures from 1951 to 1980. This was considered the base period for the study. They then looked at the surface temperature data from the last 30 years (1980 until now) to determine whether extreme heat events were increasing.

From there, the team wanted to see how much heating and cooling occurred in both time periods. To do this, they used a bell curve, which is a common tool that places the middle ground at the top of the bell (for instance, if this were a grading curve, a "C" would be at the top while the next tier down on each side would be a "B" and a "D," and the bottom of the bell would be an "A" and an "F). In this case, the top of the bell would be mean temperature, the next tier down would be "cold" on one side and "hot" on the other, then "very cold" and "extremely cold" on one side moving down while "very hot" and "extremely hot" are moving down the bell on the other side.

Researchers then applied mean temperatures from 1980 until present, and found that 1980s, 1990s and 2000s fell more to the hot side than cold. The curve widened and flattened as well, which means there was a broader range of variability. This is important because Hansen once predicted that global warming's connection to extreme events would become more apparent in the decades from 1980 to present, but natural variability can play a role too and actually mask the trend. It was important to distinguish the two.

This wider curve created the new "extremely hot" category, which was barely there in the base period. However, hot has become considered normal in the last 30 years. To be more specific, 75 percent of land area on Earth had "hot" summers in the last decade alone, where only 33 percent had "hot" summers from 1951 to 1980 total.

According to the researchers, an "extremely hot" summer is considered a mean summer temperature that is experienced by less than one percent of Earth's land area during the base period. But since 2006 alone, approximately 10 percent of land area across the Northern Hemisphere had a summer like this.

"This summer, people are seeing extreme heat and agricultural impacts," said Hansen. "We're asserting that this is casually connected to global warming, and in this paper, we present the scientific evidence for that."

The study noted "extremely hot" summers in other areas besides just the U.S. Midwest, like Texas, Mexico and Oklahoma in 2011 and Eastern Europe, Western Asia and the Middle East in 2010.

This study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

No I'm not, and I don't understand why people insist on bringing religion into this argument.

Listen here, and listen good. We are animals. Literally. We're animals with a highly developed brain, but still animals. Nobody snapped their fingers and brought us here. That is what I believe. We crawled from the evolutionary pit and we're here in all our glory, stop cowering, revel in it.

And we have the same needs as every other animal. Food, shelter, protection, procreation, etc etc. We are the dominant species on this planet. If cows were the dominant species, their collective methane farts would also effect the planet in some way.

People are NOT going to accept a lower standard of living because you tell them they are killing the planet. So give it up. It's not true anyway, but even if it was, you're wasting your time. The same drive that spurred us to dominate this planet also drives us, individually, to acquire things. Like money, a house, cars, etc etc.

And here's the thing, all you environmentalists are the same way. You don't want to make personal sacrifices, you just want some Government to do it all for you. To force it on everyone else.

So you can attack me, you can accuse me of being "religious" (whatever the fuck THAT has to do with anything), but I'm coming out and saying it. I don't give a fuck. I'm 35 and in the blink of an eye I'll be dead. In the blink of an eye, my children will be dead. All I want is to have the best life possible, sorry that's so offensive to some people, but there it is.

Now if you can prove that this is "killing" the planet because of a few degrees in temperature, and that mankind is the reason, great. Knock yourself out. Here's the thing though, if the fix for this effects me in any way, I'll fight you tooth and nail. Leave me and mine out of it.

I agree with pretty much everything you said. And I never said anyone should accept a lower standard of living for any reason.

"Now if you can prove that this is "killing" the planet because of a few degrees in temperature, and that mankind is the reason, great. Knock yourself out. Here's the thing though, if the fix for this effects me in any way, I'll fight you tooth and nail. Leave me and mine out of it"

Never said anything was killing the planet. I said things have been fucked up by people. That is a fact. I am not an environmentalist in any way. I only stated that people who blatantly dismiss things that are very possible because of personal reasons seems....short sighted.

I never made any mention of being on a crusade of sorts to get people to do anything about anything. I am talking about having an open mind. Again, I am not an extremest any way shape or form. I give no money nor do I belong to any groups involved in environmental activities.

quote: I said things have been fucked up by people. That is a fact. I am not an environmentalist in any way. I only stated that people who blatantly dismiss things that are very possible because of personal reasons seems....short sighted.

Yeah but what's the point on dwelling about that? We can't go back and fix our mistakes. We just have to soldier on like the upright animals we are, doing the best we can with what we know at the time.

Nobody likes it when people throw mankind up in your face, like you're personally responsible for the world. Not saying YOU are doing that, but a lot of people on your side do that. It's annoying, cheap, and just emboldens people against you.

quote: Never said anything was killing the planet. I said things have been fucked up by people. That is a fact. I am not an environmentalist in any way.

quote: People are NOT going to accept a lower standard of living because you tell them they are killing the planet. So give it up. It's not true anyway, but even if it was, you're wasting your time. The same drive that spurred us to dominate this planet also drives us, individually, to acquire things. Like money, a house, cars, etc etc.

The problem is that if we don't reduce our greenhouse gases by 80% to 90%, we are going to be experiencing a drastic reduction in our standard of living. We are not going to have enough of the essential things like food and fresh water.

So basically the choice is between a small reduction in our material consumption in the short term or mass starvation and a hellish planet in the long term. Our own self interest should lead us to change, but short term seems to win out over long term so we do nothing.

Looking at human history, it is not surprising that we act this way. Jared Diamond's Collapse shows that civilizations have made this choice over and over to destroy themselves rather than change.